


'Coulrophobia' is a very modern, weird Word

by melonbutterfly



Category: Star Trek RPF
Genre: M/M, Phobias
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-08-08
Updated: 2009-08-08
Packaged: 2017-10-12 23:42:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,837
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/130464
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/melonbutterfly/pseuds/melonbutterfly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's no big deal, Zach just doesn't like clowns. It's common sense, nothing more.</p>
            </blockquote>





	'Coulrophobia' is a very modern, weird Word

**Author's Note:**

> For a prompt over at the trek_rpf_kink meme.

They were in some kind of city (Chris didn't bother trying to remember which one; they had seen churches and nice old buildings when they had had time, but nothing like the Eiffel Tower or Big Ben, so he can't be blamed for having no idea) and all kind of hyper on lack of sleep because of jetlag and another more or less boring day filled with interviews, and actually they had just wanted to get back to the hotel and do something sensible like watch TV or take hot baths.

Then, the limousine (and holy fuck, Chris still felt kind of giddy because he ( _they_ ) were suddenly so important they got chauffeured around in a fucking _stretch limousine_ ) came to a halt because of a red light or something, and there were flashy, colourful lights on the other side of the street. Immediately hypnotised, Chris stared at these colourful, flashy light; he was in a slight daze and thus didn't notice what was going on around him until suddenly Karl spoke directly in his ear. "We _must_ see this!", he said, and there was some groaning and some cheering, but Chris was not really paying attention because, well, flashy colourful lights were still hypnotising him.

And then there was a hand on his arm and Zoë said "You coming? Mike will try to find a place to wait for us, but we're all going." and suddenly everyone was outside of the limousine and heading towards the fair. The cool air woke Chris up a little and he looked around; they were clearly overdressed in the crowd of normal people who were also visiting the fair, but not overdressed enough to be creepy. Karl and Simon were grinning and talking animatedly about how a good rollercoaster drive with screaming and loopings and up and down would be absolutely perfect to relieve some stress, get rid of the tension; Zoë was grinning and pulling Anton along, who was loudly debating whether he should eat hot dogs and spun sugar before or after the rollercoaster, in the end settling on doing both. John was shaking his head like an old man, and Bruce was challenging Eric on who could win the biggest, pinkest, most horrible stuffed animal in whatever game they came across first.

Where was Zach?

"Here, sleepyhead," came Zach's amused voice from his other side, and Chris quickly turned his head, blinking. "Are we on a fair?", he asked even as they all stepped closer together because the crowd got thicker.

"No, Chris. This is all just an illusion. In reality we're still in that stuffy limousine, trying not to fall asleep with our eyes open," Eric said sarcastically, half turned back to face him, and then reached to ruffle his hair even though it wasn't really long enough to get ruffled. Because they were arch-enemies on-screen, he liked to act the other way around off-screen and it was okay, because Eric was a nice guy and they got along.

"There!", Karl squeaked and hell, he'd get needled for squealing like an excited little girl later. Chris, finally waking up a little, made a mental note to from now on exclaim "Oh my god a rollercoaster!" in a girly voice at random intervals to forever remind him of this moment. It was a fair revenge for Karl's annoying affinity to bug him with that Bromance-thing or the kind-of-crush he had on Zach, or the kind-of-crush Zach had on him and the fact that neither of them had really done anything about it yet. Karl said they were skittish little girls (or vanilla, which was almost worse), but really, they were just taking it slow. Neither of them really wanted to start a relationship on the press tour; it was too simple, too easy because they were always together anyway, it'd be nothing special then and a little devaluating, somehow.

But that didn't mean they couldn't touch or cuddle or fall asleep on each other or sleep in the same bed, and they did that whenever they felt like it (meaning, more often than not). Right now, Zach grabbed Chris' hand and pulled him forwards; the others were quickly striving for the rollercoaster and he had almost fallen behind.

So they rode the rollercoaster (twice, because Karl insisted the first time was only to relieve stress, the second time was for fun, and because the line was long the second time was only a little less exciting than the first), even Anton who had tried to bail out last minute, but gave in to the pressure when Bruce announced that if even he as the old man that he was (his words) was going to do it, then Anton as the youngest certainly had to as well. Karl ate the rest of his hotdog and Anton got onto the rollercoaster, and they all screamed like little girls (or at least Zoë said so; the others insisted that they all had yelled manly, except for Simon, who apparently was a quiet rollercoaster-rider).

Afterwards they ate spun sugar and hot dogs, watched Eric and Bruce compete and fail at a game where they had to throw tennis balls at mountains of empty cans. Zoë then proceeded to show them how it was done right and kicked their asses; she gave the pink teddy bear she won to John, who beamed smugly (and only John could pull that off in a way that didn't make it obnoxious). They went to a couple of more games, got onto the carrousel (on which Anton promptly got sick, but managed not to throw up), ate more unhealthy, over-expensive stuff and generally had a great time. Zach and Chris held hands a couple of times and Chris chivalrously bought the banana on a stick dipped in dark chocolate that Zach had been staring at longingly, only to regret it because Zach insisted that the chocolate should be sucked off before the banana could be eaten. Eric spent half the time Zach ate the banana laughing hysterically because of the way Chris would alternatively pale and blush, only to swallow and look away; the others were nice enough to grin and chuckle, at most. When he was done Zach smiled wickedly and bumped his shoulder into Chris', who didn't know whether to be annoyed or even more in love with him for the way his breath smelled of dark chocolate, for the way his eyes twinkled, and ended up with both.

It was great, especially because nobody at all seemed to recognise them and they could feel totally anonymous; a very nice change to the rest of the press tour. Not even the vainest person on earth could enjoy so much fussing about them without needing a break, and this fair provided it for them.

And then they came across a group of five clowns. During the day they probably entertained children by doing tricks, "magic", and other stuff like that; now, well into the night, they did the same, but their crowds consisted mostly of more or less drunk people. Zoë decided that they should join that crowd even though they weren't drunk at all (alcohol and jetlag didn't match well, especially not when they had to get up relatively early the next day). Chris didn't mind; while didn't particularly like clowns, he didn't dislike them either, but Zoë apparently had a bunch of cute childhood memories that would probably make her love clowns forever. The others were more or less in; Simon insisted that he could do a couple of better tricks than them and wanted to challenge one of them to some kind of weird "magic"-battle and Anton complained because he hadn't brought a camera.

And Zach tensed. Chris immediately noticed because ever since the chocolate-banana, he had gravitated a little around Zach, sensitised to him almost like a satellite was sensitive to the planet it was revolving around. He turned around to look at him, took in the tight, conflicted expression on Zach's face, turned his head to look at the others again who had already joined the small crowd standing around the clowns, and looked back at Zach.

"Zach?", he asked, and Zach, staring fixedly at the clowns, slightly shook his head. That was when Chris recognised the expression on his face; it was half annoyance, half fear, and the annoyance seemed to be directed half at Zach himself and half at the clowns.

Chris decided to be neither insensitive nor patronising. "You don't like clowns?"

"No", Zach said curtly, starting to scowl.

"No big deal, man," Chris said and shrugged. "I'll tell the others we'll wait in the car, okay?"

Zach didn't reply, but he didn't need to; Chris knew him well enough to know that he wouldn't want to make a big deal out of this. So he went to John and told him that he was tired and they'd head back to the limousine, and while John appeared puzzled (especially when he glanced at Zach and noticed the scowl he was wearing), he at least wasn't disappointed. "I think we'll join you when we're done here, I'm pretty tired myself," he said and then smirked. "Don't buy him any bananas on the way; I don't want you two doing anything filthy on the seat I'm going to sit on."

Only barely dignifying that with an eye roll, Chris went back to Zach and took his hand, and if Zach's grip was a little tighter than necessary, he didn't comment on it. After they got out of the main crowd Zach called Mike, their driver, who told them to wait by the street and that he'd be there in ten minutes, and only when they stood relatively apart from the general hubbub, still holding hands, Chris spoke up. "So, clowns, huh?", he said, and Zach sighed, scowl returning. "I just don't like them."

"Hey, that's okay-" Chris started, but Zach continued as if he hadn't heard.

"There are clowns who have _killed_ people!"

"Maybe, but-"

"Have you ever read _It_ by Stephen King? Or watched the movie? Every sane person is reasonably wary of them after that."

"Probably, I-"

"I just don't trust people whose faces I can't see, that's perfectly logical."

"You're-"

"Besides-"

" _Zach!_ "

Pausing mid-word, Zach looked Chris, eyes unnaturally wide, causing Chris to instinctively take a step closer, feeling oddly protective. He put his free hand, the one that wasn't currently clasped tightly by Zach, on the other's cheek and looked him in the eyes, trying to project calmness and acceptance and love. "Take a breath, baby, it's perfectly alright not to like clowns. Many people don't like them; I'm not that fond of them either. It's not like you ran away screaming, it's _fine_. Calm down."

Zach licked his lips and took a breath before swallowing and exhaling. He didn't say anything, but Chris felt him calm down.

They bumped foreheads and didn't even notice when Mike parked the limousine right next to them.


End file.
